1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates, generally, to ozone generators. More particularly, it relates to a household current-driven ozone generator including a coil spring and a method for cleaning air conditioning ducts with ozonated air.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Ozone may be generated by placing a sufficient potential difference between two spaced apart electrodes to cause a discharge between them, positioning an insulator between the electrodes to prevent direct arcing between them, and passing oxygen or a gaseous mixture containing oxygen between the two electrodes when discharges are occuring. The discharge converts O.sub.2 (a molecule of oxygen) to O.sub.3 (a molecule of ozone).
Ozone may be used in numerous applications, all relating to its ability to destroy bacteria and to deactivate viruses. Thus, it can be used to purify water, destroy odors, and the like.
Since ozone generators consume electrical power, the primary developments over the years have related to methods for increasing the efficiency of the devices, i.e., for increasing the quantity of ozone created per unit of power consumption.
The conventional wisdom, reflected in Japanese patent No. 59-111902 (1984), is that the best way to increase efficiency is to operate the devices at high frequencies. For example, that patent discloses a device that operates at a pulse width of 1000 nanoseconds or less. A power source capable of producing a high voltage of such short pulse width is expensive.
What is needed, then, is an ozone generator that produces ozone in ample quantities but which operates at sixty cycles per second, i.e., at household current frequency. Such a device would be affordable because it would not require a special power supply. If it could be provided in portable form, it could be put to numerous consumer applications.
There is a need as well for an ozone generator that is made of low cost, commercially available parts.
However, in view of the prior art considered as a whole at the time the present invention was made, it was not obvious to those of ordinary skill in this art how such a device could be provided.